The Legacy of Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd

18 August 2010 | 19:09 Code : 7994 General category

The Egyptian thinker raised awareness among the Muslim intellectual circles. By Davoud Fairahi.

Among the contemporary Muslim intellectuals, Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd was indeed a towering figure. Throughout his life, Abu Zayd concentrated his efforts on marrying critical thoughts with intellectual, political and social traditions of the Muslim World. The Egyptian thinker made earnest endeavor to introduce modern Western methodologies such as hermeneutics to the thoughts of the Medieval Ages in order to draw new conclusions. Abu Zayd’s standing made him the target of harsh attacks from both traditionalist and modern camps in the Muslim World’s intellectual sphere. Despite the vitriol –especially from the traditionalist camp- he has unquestionably left his imprint on their thoughts.

Abu Zayd could be best described as a post-secular intellectual, that is, he belongs to a circle which views traditions of faith via a critical periscope. Among those works of him which have influenced the Muslim intelligentsia “Imam Shafi’i and Establishment of the Middle Ages Ideology” probably tops the chart. Shafi’i –founder of Medieval ideology- occupies a role similar to the one Immanuel Kant has held in the West and the modern world. Few Western intellectuals publish a work without referring to Kant and the same holds true about Imam Shafi’i who founded the methodology of Islamic sciences and formulated the principles of Islamic Jurisprudence (Fiqh). Through deconstruction of Shafi’i’s essays Abu Zayd has focused his critique towards the founder of these principles, similar to the works of French post-modern thinker Michel Foucault in the Western World.

It is no exaggeration to call Abu Zayd the driving force of the Muslim World in its transitional period. Despite its apparent calm, the Muslim World is undergoing a dramatic, disconcertingly vague-directioned transformation which for the most part is a response to the developments in West.

Abu Zayd was the gadfly who Plato talked of, he vexed some people and turned into their target of hate, but nevertheless he left a trace. His bitter tongue stopped the Muslim World from falling into sleep and incited it to react. Unfortunately, the Muslim World is resistance to new developments, so it treated Abu Zayd the same way it treated Ibn-i-Rushd [Averroes], the Muslim philosopher of 12^th century AD.

Whatever the future direction of the Muslim World, Abu Zayd has left his trace. Regardless of Abu Zayd’s motives, without a shadow of doubt the result of his intellectual endeavors was positive. He raised awareness of principal issues and his reflections made him an eternal intellectual figure in the Muslim World.